Rig Works delivers its 150th rig

Published 6:09 am, Friday, January 10, 2014

When J.W. Brake and wife Jennifer decided to strike out on their own in 2005 and opened Rig Works in west Odessa, "we weren't sure we'd build one rig," he said.

This week he delivered his company's 150th service rig, to Liberty Pump of McCamey. The company celebrated its 100th rig in August 2011.

Joel Solis, owner and chief executive officer of Liberty Pump, said the new rig is the sixth his company has bought from Rig Works and brings his fleet to 24.

"It will be going to work for Devon Energy here in the Permian Basin," he said.

Solis said two years ago he and his brother, Robert, who serves as chief operating officer, began looking at rig manufacturers and decided "Rig Works is the best in the market."

The Solis brothers' goal for 2014 is to grow Liberty's fleet to 30 rigs, something Joel said is possible. Three rigs are being refurbished and should be ready to be put to work this year. The company currently employs 120 with offices in McCamey, Midland, Odessa, Wink and other neighboring communities.

Joel said he looks forward to buying additional rigs from Rig Works but currently plans to see how healthy demand is for its current fleet before making any additional purchases.

A veteran rig builder, Brake has learned to adjust to advancing technology.

For example, Brake said, the rig he just handed off to Liberty, a Mustang 600 HD, is designed to handle heavier loads associated with the Wolfberry formation -- the Permian Basin's dominant formation, he said -- and to better handle longer horizontal laterals. The rig can drill vertically to 24,000 feet and offers a lot of flexibility, he added.

Not only are wells being drilled deeper vertically, he said, but the horizontal laterals are getting longer. Beefier rigs, Brake observed, are increasingly required.

"The tubulars in the wells these rigs are handling, the strings are longer and heavier and we've adapted our rigs to help our customers handle that," he said.

Brake estimated that half of Rig Works' rigs are at work in the Permian Basin and the remainder are at work in virtually every other energy-producing basin in the U.S. and in Canada, South America and Russian provinces.

The company's rigs and masts are built around customer requirements, Brake said.

"We listen to them and give them what they want. They're very involved in the design. They have ownership in this company."

Rig Works, with a workforce of just 100, just completed a large fabrication shop on its six acres on Steven Road that can hold 30 tons of craneage and 14 welding machines, all under one roof. That, Brake said, frees up the assembly line and improves efficiency. The company has also acquired six acres across the street from its location that Brake isn't sure what he'll do with yet.

The company has a capacity of two to three rigs a month. Brake said with a laugh that he doesn't expect to celebrate Rig No. 200 for another couple of years, though he is working on some deals for 2014 and expects another great year. Customers range from multi-national companies to large producers and service companies to privately owned service companies like Liberty, which the Solis brothers founded in 1991 to sell and service oil field pumping equipment. They branched out into well servicing in 2002, working throughout the Permian Basin. Solis said they plan to continue focusing on the Permian Basin, though future growth plans may have them moving into other producing regions.

"It's exciting to have the customers we have," Brake said. "We're blessed with the customers we have, the personnel we have and the vendors we work with. The Permian Basin has proven to be a decent place to be."